On June 14, he wrote about his son: "His casting is better than I expected so he must have been practicing some. Ad. They tried to understand his rages, and why they'd even been born. "You should look at the lyrics," she says as the stereo plays. He was still learning, he was still -- he was still -- what is it? Her top choice is Duke, and in her application essay she talked about her life as a frustrated athlete without a sport. The decision to sack 800 staff via Zoom and replace them with cheaper agency workers seemed to surprise many. Once, he arrived late to spring training because he lost track of time while hunting wolves in a cold northern forest, and the media focused so much on the process story of the tardiness that nobody seemed to notice the window Williams had briefly opened into his truest self: He sought peace in the wilderness with wolves. Ted beamed, a reward she seldom got while he lived and craves now that he's gone. Trembling as she held the poster in her hand, she finally read the words she wanted so badly to hear as a child: "To my beautiful daughter. One sleuth, two notebooks and a 20-year puzzle. She and Eric will move in soon. John-Henry rubbed Vaseline on her shoulders and told her not to cry. Bradlee spent a decade reporting, and while Claudia and Eric say he got many things about Ted's military and baseball careers right, they say he allowed unreliable people to give opinions couched as facts when discussing the inner workings of the Williams clan, which has forever been a complicated tribe in which truths are perceptions and history keeps repeating itself: Bobby-Jo died five years ago, of advanced liver disease, killed by the same bad habits as her mother.Just months before his death, Williams makes an unannounced appearance at the Ted Williams Museum and Hitters Hall of Fame. "Jesus," he said, then he walked away.By the time Eric Abel came into the Williams inner circle as the family attorney, Ted had already excommunicated Bobby-Jo. It's a mess, all of it. Meet Daniel Norris, the most interesting pitcher in baseball. Prepare thyself, sir. This depiction of her brother by an author she cooperated with haunts Claudia, who believes her dad knew better, and she feels like the only one left to defend John-Henry.After Ted died, friends told reporters that Williams disagreed with his son's obsession. If you have inside knowledge of a topic in the news, contact the ABC. Her brother lobbed one wild, but Claudia kicked her leg and delivered a strike. "Her spirit lightens when she does his voice, everything lit from the inside. He looked anonymous and happy. In those last years, she taught him how to be a father to a daughter. He opens it on the kitchen counter, the pages full of his notes, some passages marked with a check if he feels they're accurate, other quotes highlighted and some with sharp, angry pen strokes when he's aggrieved, the margins littered with "not true" and "bulls---" and "lie." The first visit lasted a week in the fall of 2014, and we made paella and she told funny stories about her dad -- he'd call the public phone in European hostels and boom at unsuspecting travelers, "Is CLAUDIA WILLIAMS there? SHE HAS LOST her father to old age and her brother to leukemia. He knew he might not live through his procedure, and at the end of his life, he'd finally put aside his own wishes for theirs. Claudia is beautiful and familiar, her face a combination of her mother's Vogue model cheekbones and her father's all-American jaw. He longed to rewrite the facts of his life. Becoming a man in his father's eyes? How many women are being killed but not counted? We're desperately trying -- I say 'we' like John-Henry's still around -- but we're desperately trying to figure out what made him tick. That's the hope and the promise of whatever life remains in John-Henry's sperm. When the boat docked back at Pier 39, they walked down the boards looking for dinner. Henry Leutwyler for ESPN MagazineHer husband, Eric Abel, comes home from running errands. The timing never worked for her because she struggles to look past her obsessions: nursing school and a book she wrote about her father, which started as a stocking stuffer about lessons she learned and turned into a cathartic exploration of the person she's still trying to be. She is laughing in the kitchen, a lazy Sunday morning. Emeryville, CA. CLIFF WELCH/ICON SPORTSWIRE/AP IMAGES. Every now and again, she sighs. Latest by Claudia Williams How the manhunt for the Monterey Park mass shooter unfolded By Claudia Williams with wires Journalist at Courier-Mail. "She didn't like hot dogs, but she loved to see her father smile, so she ate them every time. Enthusiasm revived. He protected Claudia too. About Major League Baseball Williams hits one of his career 521 home runs, shown here in the late '50s. Nobody is clean. ", I don't think [Ted] at the end of his life felt like he accomplished anything.. Through Passport, station members can stream new and archival programming anytime, anywhere. Everyone she has ever loved except for Eric is gone or almost gone, and she's sure she'll outlive Eric. They spent hours at that table, talking, playing the games he never got to play as a kid -- As I was going to St. Ives, I met a man with seven wives -- and debating religion and the nature of life and death. Stop!" Ted's health declined, more every day. In the night, he heard a kitten crying, and after searching for and finding her, he tucked the cat, fleas and all, into his bag.At home, he brought her back to health and felt hurt when she wanted to roam outside. His father drifted on the edge of it. After deciding to make jewelry, she took classes to become a master craftsman. It's a contract she wrote -- the Williams family loves handwritten contracts -- with her mother at a Howard Johnson's somewhere: "When I grow up I will never have a child. Nimo Omer and Claudia Williams have some answers, Rule breakers, Zoom daters and the etiquette of love during lockdown. Watching her watch a dragon movie makes it all make sense.Sitting on her couch, she cries when the dragon saves the little boy. Just horrible guilt. "I've had a great life, and what the hell, if I die, maybe I'll die on the table. trib.al/cdisTxM. she says, sounding vulnerable and shaky, like she's grasping for something beyond not only her reach but even her ability to name it. The idea is strange, yet mechanically quite simple: She'd need a surrogate mother and a name. By Jennifer Deutschmann / July 31, 2021 12:04 pm EST. "I don't think [Ted] at the end of his life felt like he accomplished anything.- Eric AbelThe house is empty inside, dangling wires and pencil marks on the walls indicating where a range will go. Tapper has written five off-Broadway musicals. Finally she said yes. Always scared of being abandoned, he fit a dog harness on a long leash and tied Bangor to his bed. Her father offered her money, but she refused it. Everything about me says no. Time frayed the threads, pulled apart seams, and years ago the shirt went into a safe. Nick Trotta is executive producer for Major League Baseball. Ted drove her back to her mom's house in Miami once, and when they arrived, it transpired that Bobby-Jo had forgotten her keys, and Ted, raging, kicked her out of the car and left her standing alone there in the dark, exactly as his mother had done to him. "Claudia and John-Henry would have given anything to know this. 9 closing behind them. How did the manhunt unfold and what do we know about the mass shooting? Claudia asks. She was trapped in his house by television trucks and reporters shouting questions. Everything that would happen began in these moments, but none of them could see the future, not even the fortune-teller.He looked up at the old man. Zolgensma is a life-saving drug but it costs more than a million and a half pounds per patient. He traced his finger over the old man's wrinkled palm. For a season, at 37 years old, she competed against teenagers. It's empty now, under renovation, sitting low and wide on a hill, beneath the grove of live oak trees. CLAUDIA WILLIAMS FOUND comfort wearing her dad's favorite red flannel shirt. His health declined steadily for nearly the next nine years. The lessons that he had to teach us, we didn't have the time to learn. "Suddenly quiet and hiding now, she says, "I don't wanna think about it," as one more piece of her father slips away.SHE IS HIDING from loss, and from regret, hiding from her family's past, which is always operating the strings of her daily life. He looked anonymous and happy. Reminders of grief surround her, and now her mother is fading too. When she died, 11 months after he hit a home run in his final at-bat, he went through her things and gathered up family photographs. "The first seven years, any time I would have a break, any fun, one moment -- inevitably, guilt. The house felt different than before, desolation replaced by hope. Can the dogs of Chernobyl teach us new tricks when it comes to our own survival? May Williams never saw her son play a major league game, even though she lived through his entire career. He smiled, and seemed lighter. That was 1961, and he never wanted family to hurt him again. "You have heavy burdens you're still carrying," he said. She got lost in thought, staring down at the tiny home plate, feeling a strange connection. So many firsts happened on that trip. A heavy rain is falling, blurring the streetlights reflecting off the asphalt, and she looks out into the glare of the headlamps and sees something move. The rain pounds the roof of her car. But something happened in the months after our first visit. She asked God to take her instead. Centuries may pass but to him there will be only a moment of sleep without dreams. "See if you can help John-Henry get a job," Williams asked. The Other 80, +9 more . She got a letter from Jimmie Foxx's daughter. I think that he had a difficulty making attachments. John-Henry wanted to control his father -- his latest Bangor -- and his father rebelled. She screamed at them in the blood lab. Reminders of grief surround her, and now her mother is fading too. 2017 - Jul 20225 years. He loves me, I love him. "I don't know if you ran over him," she says. It's the same look her father got when she'd care for him in the last years of his life. Henry Leutwyler for ESPN Magazine, Her husband, Eric Abel, comes home from running errands. When Ted Williams died in 2002, his son and daughter had him preserved. Today Claudia and husband Eric are looking at options to carry on her father's legacy. She learned how to sky-dive, and after having to deploy the backup chute on her first solo jump, she went back up again: I'll show you, sky! He was so focused and when you're that focused you can't really be a great husband. She feels lonely. But I love him.' The anger that dominated both their lives started there, on those lonely evenings outside 4121 Utah St., waiting for their mom to come home. He was still learning, he was still -- he was still -- what is it? ", The literature John-Henry took home from Alcor, one of the country's two major cryonics companies, worked in his imagination; he purchased every book they offered, according to credit card receipts. San Diego neighbors would watch Ted and his younger brother Danny, 8 and 6, sitting alone on the front porch late into the night. "You could see an internal struggle," Abel says. COLIN BRALEY/REUTERS/LANDOVThe clean cryonics narrative of Bradlee's book doesn't match the messiness of that long family dispute. In his logs, John-Henry and Claudia began to make appearances. Williams constantly looked to the wilderness for peace. Although they enjoyed living in the city, they both decided they wanted to spend some time in a more rural area. He filled six yellow legal-sized pages, jotting down the price for freezing just the head ($50,000) and the price for the entire body ($120,000), making charts and decision trees plotting the potential repercussions of cryonics. She recently stopped to pick up swim fins from a workout partner, and he said he was having an office party and invited her in. "Do you think they accepted me because of Dad?" She and her brother saw the house on Utah Street. Continue reading Geitz back on court for Firebirds , Tasmanian Richie Porte has been forced to abandon the Tour de France following a crash during stage nine on the descent of Mont du Chat, he slipped off the road into grass and crashed into the side of the mountain at high speed. Former players including Baseball Hall of Famers Willie McCovey and Wade Boggs, three-time All-Star Jim Kaat, and current Cincinnati Reds first baseman and former National League MVP Joey Votto share how Williams philosophy, commitment to greatness and approach to hitting influenced them in the film. His flies are safe too, and she can see his hands in the bend of the knots. Around the long kitchen table, John-Henry began to make his case. "The outside world slipped away, and the universe shrank to the three of them: a dad looking for absolution, a son who needed a dad to show him how to be a man, a daughter who'd always craved a family, which they at long last became. "Now she just needed to get into a graduate program, do years of studying and open her own nurse practitioner's office. It's empty now, under renovation, sitting low and wide on a hill, beneath the grove of live oak trees. Catch up with The Loop, How the manhunt for the Monterey Park mass shooter unfolded. She says she visited the hospital so many times that all those trips ran together, but she remains steadfast: Ted signed a piece of paper. ", I think I'm just looking for him to still be proud of me.. She found the note three years ago, 10 years after he died, going through memorabilia. It is named Crusoe, and as the movie ended, Eric's girls looked over and saw Claudia weeping, shoulders rocking up and down, distraught over the boy taking the dragon out to sea. A vulnerability he never had in his life. When a video of a woman chained to a wall went viral in China, it ignited a battle for the truth between the people and the state, A former KGB officer, Britains foreign secretary and a potential national security breach. First, he needed a heart catheterization, and doctors worried he might not survive even that preliminary procedure. He beamed, and the next day, everything about him seemed different, and not just because he wore Red Sox gear head to toe. How did we get here and what happens next? Impossible to hit, even harder to defend, Floyd Mayweather is fighting to leave the ring the way he entered it: Standing. About 20 years ago, she graduated from college. The industry is normally worth $132 million a year. Why are the ages of three to five so crucial? To her, the many accounts of Ted Williams are all fatally flawed because most people didn't understand that the two famous acts of his life -- ballplayer and fisherman -- occurred only because he was hiding from the third and final act of his life: fatherhood. Email. Get in touch at claudia.williams@theadvocate.com.au or on 0448 310 641 It's the same look her father got when she'd care for him in the last years of his life. she says suddenly. YouTube. She makes them earn their story. The foreign secretary suggested LGBTQ football fans should flex and compromise when visiting the Qatar World Cup. She stepped out of the shadows and did readings. He felt vulnerable. she says suddenly. "Did you see the frog?" There are 300+ professionals named "Claudia Williams", who use LinkedIn to exchange information, ideas, and opportunities. Like any damaged person, he took his protection too far. I live right behind you. . Near the safe in his old house is a note Ted saved, dated Dec. 10, 1983, when Claudia was 12. He's everywhere. Not confidential? Other times he'd listen. We talked for hour upon hour. "You won't always be there to protect him," a character in the movie tells the father, and Claudia smiles, turns to Eric and says, "John-Henry would've loved this movie.". Maybe she'd just find ways to exhaust herself, and find obsessions to occupy her mind, day after day, year after year, never breaking free of her father and never feeling as if she had honored his memory either. After seemingly endless summers on the golf course with my dad, I received my college degree and landed my first job as an Assistant Golf Professional after graduation. What caused them to vanish? ""Just tell me you love me," she said. On June 14, he wrote about his son: "His casting is better than I expected so he must have been practicing some. Everything that would happen began in these moments, but none of them could see the future, not even the fortune-teller. Every day, she drives on Ted Williams Memorial Parkway. by Tim Keown, May 2 fight will seal Mayweather's legacy. FacebookTwitterWhatsappEmailClaudia Williams is a journalist for The Advocate covering general news and events. Rarely has a gesture been as misunderstood as taking the knee. As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work. As she parks her car and goes into the house, she's deciding whether to share an idea that has been gaining momentum and fervor. she cries.He presses hard on the brakes, and she gets out. In the rain, in the glow of their house, she shakes her foot along the pavement, clearing a path, making sure no frogs get caught beneath the tires of the approaching car.textWilliams constantly looked to the wilderness for peace. Engage via Email. "She's tired. He needed more time. One at a time, they said she'd shown them a side of Ted Williams they'd never known. Ted Williams' mother gave him nothing but a name, and as soon as he grew old enough, he gave it back, changing Teddy on his birth certificate to the more respectable Theodore. "It was a bright, sunny day, and I was there. His presence seemed real. Ellen DeGeneres has been one of the biggest stars on US television. Lots of GPs are leaving the profession, and we cant recruit or train new ones fast enough to fill the gaps. The most important thing he read was the origin text of cryonics, a book by science fiction writer and professor Robert Ettinger titled The Prospect of Immortality. "I think he knows," Eric replied.The house felt different than before, desolation replaced by hope. "Mom, you want to go to the hospital?" People named Claudia Williams. "JOHN-HENRY WILLIAMS loved frogs.He loved anything small and weak. "He's real to you, isn't he?" Get in touch at claudia.williams@theadvocate.com.au or on 0448 310 641 Advertisement Ad The most important thing he read was the origin text of cryonics, a book by science fiction writer and professor Robert Ettinger titled The Prospect of Immortality. Pressure is growing on Israel and Hamas to announce a ceasefire. She got the kids. Finally an email from Duke arrived asking her to log on to its website for the school's decision. Suddenly quiet and hiding now, she says, "I don't wanna think about it," as one more piece of her father slips away. This is what Claudia Williams told the CBC's investigative reporter Connie Walker in an eight- part podcast called "The Tip" about the night her sister Alberta Williams disappeared nearly 3 decades ago. The stories and biographies quote staff members and associates who say Ted continued to want his remains scattered in the Atlantic, and in the end, Bradlee seemed to conclude that Ted did not want to be frozen. "Normally he's not keen on the idea. For more information about PBS Passport, visit the PBS Passport FAQ website. she asked, "or do you think they accepted me because of me?". The three of them laughed, and they asked Ted questions, and he told stories and asked them questions too. Thought he wasn't very good at it. "I know Claudia will be fine.". I'd like to have some more time with my two kids. And we actually showed him that not only was he good at it, we wanted him and we said, 'You can do this, Dad.' Eric asks, kindly. Nobody is unaffected. "I surpassed John-Henry quicker because I got away," she says.She never asked for anything. The world hates me. Claudia leaned in and watched. Claudia asks. "I don't know who has to say, 'You did well,'" says Abel, who was the Williams family attorney when he met Claudia.When she decided to be a lifeguard, she completed the most advanced open-water rescue training. Ted Williams's daughter Claudia writes, " [C]hampions can be very demanding." And she always knew that she was at a disadvantage, being a girl in Ted's world. "He would see me coming up the road. Soon she will face herself alone, as her father faced the world stripped of the soothing focus of baseball and fishing. But shes just 15 years old. John-Henry wanted to control his father -- his latest Bangor -- and his father rebelled. "Ted had that constant insecurity. Finally Eric realized she needed to escape, so he put her in the back seat of his car, covered her with blankets and snuck her past the cameras. The WNET Group represents the best in public media. Articles by Claudia Williams on Muck Rack. She never asked for anything. At Ted's request, Abel wrote her out of the will, and Abel said over the nine years he spent around Williams, he heard him mention Bobby-Jo maybe three times, and every time he called her a "f---ing syphilitic c---. Chinas transformation into an economic powerhouse has come at a cost to its children, under enormous pressure to succeed. He beamed, and the next day, everything about him seemed different, and not just because he wore Red Sox gear head to toe. What happened? Michael Kantor and Albert M. Tapper are executive producers. When she decided to be a lifeguard, she completed the most advanced open-water rescue training. A few years ago, she and Eric's teenage daughters from his first marriage went to see a movie called The Water Horse, about a boy who raises a Loch Ness Monster -- which is close enough to a dragon for Claudia -- then releases the beast to save its life. When she is up, laughing with a goofy smile and light in her eyes, you cannot get close enough to her, and when she is down, spiraling into a darkness only she can see, you cannot get far enough away. HENRY LEUTWYLER. When she was young, he got so mad at her that he spit a mouthful of food in her face. Ad. His health declined steadily for nearly the next nine years. "I didn't want John-Henry to lose his father," she says. She agreed. Claudia brings over 20 years' experience catalyzing and scaling improvements in healthcare to her role as the chief executive officer of Manifest MedEx. It is May 26, National Sorry Day. She learned how to sky-dive, and after having to deploy the backup chute on her first solo jump, she went back up again: I'll show you, sky! Near the safe in his old house is a note Ted saved, dated Dec. 10, 1983, when Claudia was 12. Claudia began to cry, and Ted's voice cracked when he tried to comfort her, as she'd taught him to do. AP IMAGES. In the night, he heard a kitten crying, and after searching for and finding her, he tucked the cat, fleas and all, into his bag. There are almost 40 million more men than women in China, which is fueling the illegal trafficking of women to be brides thats spilling over into neighbouring countries. The first visit lasted a week in the fall of 2014, and we made paella and she told funny stories about her dad -- he'd call the public phone in European hostels and boom at unsuspecting travelers, "Is CLAUDIA WILLIAMS there? One afternoon, she gets a frantic phone call and rushes to her mom's bedside less than a mile away. He refused, over and over again, never feeling as if he belonged in a place with such educated people. The story is about a boy trying to live in the shadow of his powerful and domineering father -- about a child searching for his place in the world. Well, goddamit, why are you mad, why are you upset. Back at home, all of it piles up, hurt stacked upon hurt, so what started as sadness about her mom became fear and desperation over the family coming to an end with her, and she's just dissolving in her high-ceilinged kitchen, coming apart. Tears roll down her cheeks. The stories and biographies quote staff members and associates who say Ted continued to want his remains scattered in the Atlantic, and in the end, Bradlee seemed to conclude that Ted did not want to be frozen. I live right behind you. Find Claudia Williams's email address, contact information, LinkedIn, Twitter, other social media and more. Articles by Claudia Williams on Muck Rack. The WNET Groups award-winning productions include signature PBS series Nature, Great Performances, American Masters, PBS NewsHour Weekend and Amanpour and Company and trusted local news programs MetroFocus and NJ Spotlight News with Briana Vannozzi. He'd been retired for eight years. "I mean, he had [me] at 53 years old," Claudia says, her voice wavering. He couldn't buy her peace. TONY TOMSIC/WIREIMAGE/GETTY IMAGETHIS STORY BEGAN two years ago, when I reached out to Claudia about meeting at her home in Hernando. You could see it just gnaw. When he was an old man, Harvard begged him to come and receive an honorary degree. ", Just a part of the collection of artifacts fills a storage room to its 10-foot ceiling. Once he realized 'I can be good at this, and these kids want to learn from me,' we had run out of time., "He thinks it's kooky," John-Henry says. Investigators came to the house and interviewed both men, asking whether Ted was being made to sign autographs against his will, before determining there was no abuse. The renovations on Ted's house are complete. Doctors diagnosed manic depression, and she moved from booze to pills, cheating on her husband with the neighbor and giving herself another abortion with drugs and alcohol. Tears roll down her cheeks. A what? Nobody quoted is without an agenda, whether fueled by anger, misunderstanding, jealousy or love. "Even if it means saving your life?""No. She's searching for a way to break the Williams cycle -- either by letting it die with her or by being the first good parent in generations -- and she's searching for something much more elusive too.She never saw her father's body, and nothing forced her to really accept his disappearance from her life. ""I'm not taking this s---," Ted would growl, seething. Ukraine's New Year's Eve missile attack on a Russian target in the Donetsk region has led to wildly differingaccountsfrom both sides. In a closet next to her garage, her father's Orvis 8.3-foot, 7-weight graphite fly rod leans on a wall. "Those late nights when it was clear he didn't have much time left ," she says, trailing off, the light gone. Ted wrote about the water temperature (70-72 degrees), his friends who came up to fish, and details of the trout and arctic char he caught while casting for salmon. This is the story of how, five years later, 300 remain lost in a system designed to swallow them, Claudia Williams presents a special edition of the Slow Newscast on a newsletter that both reflected and reshaped celebrity culture. On the day his only son, John-Henry, was born, Ted was salmon fishing in Canada. His remains were sent to a cryonics lab in Arizona where they remain to . OL' TED WILLIAMS, HUH? All they had was each other, and both longed to decode their dad, and maybe find themselves in the process. "The first seven years, any time I would have a break, any fun, one moment -- inevitably, guilt. She never held a job. . Ted Williams: The Greatest Hitter Who Ever Lived is an Albert M. Tapper Production in association with Nick Davis Productions, Major League Baseball, Big Papi Productions, and THIRTEEN PRODUCTIONS LLCs American Masters for WNET.